Senate may return to guns

The 113th Congress is not done with its debate over guns and background checks.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hinted on Tuesday that his chamber may vote on the bipartisan gun background checks bill again this year — and said such a law could have prevented a mass shooting in Las Vegas.

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In the wake of the killing of two police officers in Nevada in a shooting that ultimately left five people dead including the shooters, Reid made the case that since the Senate’s bipartisan background check legislation died last spring, there’s been little slowdown in the number of high-profile instances of gun violence.

“Very few days go by that we don’t have these killings. The man in Las Vegas — clearly from what I’ve been able to read — was a felon. He couldn’t have bought a gun if he had background checks,” Reid told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

Asked whether that means the Senate would take back up the legislation from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) that failed last year, Reid replied: “I wouldn’t be surprised if we have another vote on it.”

Manchin said in an interview that Reid’s message has been that if the Senate can get five more votes — enough to break a 60-vote threshold filibuster — then the chamber will take the legislation back up. But he’s not there yet.

“I haven’t gotten any count that shows me closer, but maybe [Reid] knows something that I don’t know,” Manchin said. “It’s the most sensible reasonable approach. I’m a gun owner and I’m very protective of Second Amendment rights. But basically, as a law-abiding gun owner, I’ve always said I’m not going to sell my gun to a stranger or a criminal or somebody I don’t know, if I know they’ve been mentally impaired or if I know they’re irresponsible. Responsible owners don’t do that.”

Manchin said he has not met privately with Reid to discuss a renewed push for gun legislation — but said he had a meeting with Reid on Wednesday where the topic may come up.

The shooting in Las Vegas seems to have returned the gun control debate back into Reid’s legislative calculus for the rest of the year after months of inactivity. On Monday, Reid said the “American people are counting” on the Senate to pass the bill — and when the White House tweeted about passing gun legislation on Tuesday, Reid’s account tweeted back: “Very few things that I deal with really cause me the heartache that this issue does.”

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, one of four Republicans to support Manchin-Toomey, said he’d vote the same way if it come up this year and had no qualms with Reid calling up the legislation again.